In an effort to protect Barack Obama, liberals in Congress and the media have said the 2012 terror attack that saw Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans killed was about an obscure online video, even though reports say Obama knew all along it was a terror attack. But former GOP Rep. Allen West said on his website Friday he was told the real story about Benghazi and the truth, he added, "will make Iran-Contra look like Romper Room."

West said he learned this during a return flight from Detroit where he sat next to someone who reportedly knew one of the men on the roof in Benghazi. West said this unidentified person was "excited" to share what he knew with him.

"My seat mate drew schematics to orient me to the 'time and spacing' and the direction of the attack," he said. "I learned about the repeated orders to the men at the CIA annex to stand down and do nothing — thank God two of them, Glenn Doherty and Ty Woods, lived up to their code of honor and ran to the sound of the guns, resulting in their loss of life — but the preservation of life for others, their fellow Americans."

West said he learned that Ansar al-Sharia, a group affiliated with al Qaeda, was the organization behind the attack. He also learned why Ambassador Chris Stevens was at the facility in the first place. He also wondered who denied his request for extra security.

"I learned there are those who are being threatened with their pensions being cut off if they come forth to speak," West added.

He went on to say that according to his seat mate, a covert weapons scheme was underway in Benghazi. He said the United States "had been supplying radical Islamists with weapons against Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, effectively supplying the enemy and destabilizing that country."

"And it seems that there was a CIA weapons buy-back program, the aim of which was to ship the retrieved weapons out of Libya through Turkey, and to the Islamist forces in Syria," he added.

West continued by calling the scandal something "that will make Iran-Contra look like Romper Room," referring to the Iran-Contra scandal that plagued the Reagan administration and introduced Oliver North to the country. The attack on the consulate and the operations in Libya, he said, is "shrouded in a fog of lies, deceit, manipulation, threats, intimidation, coercion, abandonment, and worst of all, potentially treason."

Noting the select committee set up by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, West said everyone involved, including Obama, needs to appear. Democrats who obstruct the efforts of the committee, he added, "are complicit and guilty as well."

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Joe Newby is an IT professional who has been involved in conservative politics for years. In 1991, he ran for City Council in Riverside, California, and has served as a campaign manager for local conservatives in California and Idaho, including former Idaho State Representative Jeff Alltus. For a year, he hosted a local access cable talk show that covered conservative politics. He attended the University of Arkansas, Community College at Batesville where he graduated summa cum laude in 2005. He currently lives in north Idaho with his bride of 24 years and can be reached at ljnewby@peoplepc.com.